•M
ake learning and evaluation part of project design, to understand
the effects of your paralegal assistance. If possible, get baseline data
on each client and compare it to their future situation.
•B
e accountable to the communities you seek to serve; put in place
complaints and feedback mechanisms and act upon the feedback
received.
•A
sk clients how they would approach an issue before proposing a
solution.
• Highlight successes and progress to clients to reinforce confidence, and
have clients and communities reflect on the potential effects of their
actions. Be honest about problems and unintended consequences, and
seek client and community guidance about how to prevent problems.
•G
ive clients and members of the community tools to prevent
problems as well as tools to solve them.
ee 5. Planning, Monitoring, and Learning for Success for further
S
discussion of program effectiveness and empowerment.
See 6. Ensuring Sustainability for further ideas about ensuring that
a project’s impact can stretch beyond the immediate sphere of direct
paralegal interventions.
2. DETERMINING THE NEED FOR AND
OPPORTUNITY TO HELP
ANY PARALEGAL PROGRAM SHOULD BE FOCUSED on the community needs
it seeks to address as well as the opportunities that the local context
provides. This chapter addresses the advantages and disadvantages of
paralegal programs, how to conduct a needs assessment, identifying
relevant actors who affect the work, understanding the legal and policy
frameworks, appreciating social and economic factors, and special
considerations for projects operating in conflict and emergency situations.
In many cases, projects do not start out with an exclusive focus on
access to legal identity documentation (see box on Haki Centre). Other
programs may help community members with access to birth registration
or obtaining legal identity documentation, but not through a communitybased paralegal approach. The material covered in this chapter is
designed to be relevant for the enhancement of existing programs that
have identified lack of access to documentation as an issue that affects
the communities they are serving in other capacities.
2.1 Advantages and Disadvantages of
Paralegal Programs
CASE STUDY
The Halina Niec Legal Aid
Center reports that acquiring
documentation helps clients
regain a sense of control over
their lives.
Sometimes, however, there is
no legal status that clients can
benefit from, and attempts to
get identity documentation may
draw attention to people who
are better off if the state does
not notice them. Documentation
efforts must always be context
sensitive and proceed only if they
advance access to basic rights.
CASE STUDY
Haki Centre was sensitizing
communities on the Kenyan
coast about how to exercise
their right to vote when they
discovered that some minority
groups could not vote because
they had no proof of Kenyan
citizenship.
Community members asked Haki
Centre to address the problem.
Haki Centre investigated the
challenges and denials people
had experienced when applying
for Kenyan ID cards. They then
conducted community meetings
where paralegals explained
how to get birth certificates
and nationality documentation
so more members of the
community could vote.
Paralegal programs have achieved a great deal in many countries. But it
is important to understand their advantages and disadvantages before
deciding to implement one.
A C O M M U N I T Y- B A S E D P R A C T I T I O N E R ’ S G U I D E : D O C U M E N T I N G C I T I Z E N S H I P A N D OT H E R F O R M S O F L E G A L I D E N T I T Y
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